Jacobin Radio: What Happened in Chile? w/ Oscar Mendoza and Pablo Abufom

Chile has just elected its most extreme far-right president since the Pinochet dictatorship. José Antonio Kast won the December 14 runoff by a commanding margin — a stunning reversal in a country that in 2019 experienced a massive social uprising over the unaffordability of life and extreme inequality. The social revolt ended with the pandemic lockdown, but the following year a broad leftist coalition swept into power, electing the 34-year-old former radical student leader Gabriel Boric, whose government promised to bury neoliberalism once and for all.

How did Chile move so quickly from an anti-neoliberal social rebellion to the return of the hard right? Was this a vote for authoritarianism — or a vote against insecurity, inflation, and political stalemate? What does Kast’s victory tell us about the global resurgence of the far right, from Latin America to Europe and the United States?

Suzi examines Chile’s political reversal with two Chilean analysts: Oscar Mendoza explains this electoral shift by looking at the failed constitutional process, the role of mandatory voting, media panic over crime and immigration, and the institutional constraints Kast will face in office. Pablo Abufom situates Kast’s victory in a longer historical trajectory, arguing that this is the first democratic government of pinochetismo — a project combining authoritarian neoliberalism, moral conservatism and anticommunism, now aligned with a global far-right resurgence.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.